Amy Sebring: Welcome to the EIIP Virtual Library! Our topic today is "In-kind Humanitarian Donations." Amy Sebring: We will start with a presentation, and then follow with a Q&A session for your questions and comments. Right before we begin the Q&A portion we will review the procedure. Amy Sebring: Please do NOT send direct messages to the speaker or moderator as it makes it difficult for us to follow the discussion. Amy Sebring: Background information for today's session may be found at http://www.emforum.org/vlibrary/001004.htm ... Amy Sebring: Please note there is a link to PAHO guidelines and publications on this topic there. Amy Sebring: We are pleased to introduce our presenter, Monica Zaccarelli Davoli, who joined the Emergency Preparedness Program at the Pan American Health Organization last January. Amy Sebring: Her previous experience includes working as Mission Administrator and public health adviser with Doctors Without Borders in Azerbaijan. Amy Sebring: Welcome Monica, and thank you for taking time to be with us today. Monica Zaccarelli: Thanks Amy... Monica Zaccarelli: We will be exchanging experiences and information on in-kind donations... Monica Zaccarelli: The problem of inappropriate in-kind donations persists. Recent disasters such as the earthquake in Turkey and the floods in Venezuela and Mozambique once again exposed the problem. Monica Zaccarelli: The governments of these countries as well as the humanitarian NGOs, were faced with the traditional and time- consuming chores of sorting out medicine, food and clothes sent in boxes, plastic bags and paper parcels with no label or list of contents. Monica Zaccarelli: Many of us are familiar with tragic-comic examples of unsolicited goods that are not needed, requested, useful or wanted: winter clothes for tropical countries, products specifications written in a language not understood by the recipients ... Monica Zaccarelli: rice with different cooking time all mixed together, etc. In fact, a loan of US$ 20 million to the Bosnian Government was needed just to destroy the inappropriate drugs the country received as donations. Monica Zaccarelli: Significant efforts have taken place in the last decades to tackle inappropriate in kind donations. Just to mention a few, the World Health Organization (WHO) has published guidelines for drug donations (http://www.who.int/medicines/docs/edm- guidelines.html and http://who.int/medicines/docs/pagespublications/suppypub.htm)... Monica Zaccarelli: PAHO's guidelines on providing effective aid (http://165.158.1.110/english/ped/technical/donations.html) Monica Zaccarelli: Wemos Foundation (http://www.drugdonations.org )an initiative of a NGO-consortium that offers appropriate information about issues relating to the quality of drug donations. Monica Zaccarelli: Besides, all the important NGO's and UN agencies have policies and documents written with recommendations, redirecting pledges or encouraging certain donations. Monica Zaccarelli: However, as I said in the beginning, inappropriate in kind donations are still a significant problem that can just add to difficulties of responding to the needs of disaster victims. Monica Zaccarelli: It is time for the international community to do something about this. Monica Zaccarelli: The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) believes a preventive approach to the problem can mitigate its effect and that an efficient way of approaching a generous but ill- informed public of the donor countries is through a massive education campaign. Monica Zaccarelli: The campaign should first aim to inform the public on the actual needs of disaster victims, to instruct on the unintended consequences of some donations and to give examples of successful contributions. Although there is consensus that the best donation is cash, this message is not enough anymore. Monica Zaccarelli: No longer it is acceptable to simply say what is not needed. We must say what is needed, and why it is needed. The public needs to be given the elements to make an informed choice. Monica Zaccarelli: Second, the right time to inform the public about the negative impact of neighborhood collections is not when disaster strikes and people are anxiously seeking transportation for the goods they have collected. The time is before the disaster. Therefore, the challenge for this campaign is to change behavior, to change attitude. Monica Zaccarelli: Other types of campaigns have shown us that the public responds positively to repetitive messages. After an initial intensive campaign, an annual reminder in the form of public service announcements on television, newspapers, and radios will guarantee continued success. Monica Zaccarelli: The message on good donation practices will need to be repeated, for instance, at the onset of hurricane season or immediately after a major disaster. So far, the concrete components of this campaign are: Monica Zaccarelli: - dedicate the 2002 World Disaster Reduction Day to the topic of good donations practices and use it as a platform to launch global action. Monica Zaccarelli: - develop a common message, a message that brings together the position of humanitarian organizations and local communities. Monica Zaccarelli: - provide public awareness material to the mass media. Monica Zaccarelli: - inform the public about the unintended consequences of certain donations and provide concrete suggestions for how they can help disaster victims. Monica Zaccarelli: The idea of a public campaign to educate the general public is an effort that can pull together the most different actors towards the goal of improving in-kind donations. Monica Zaccarelli: Besides, it is in direct agreement with the principles of the sphere project (http://sphereproject.org). A project that aims at improving the quality of assistance provided to people affected by disasters. Monica Zaccarelli: Having said this, I would like to propose three questions for discussion: Monica Zaccarelli: 1. How do you convince individuals that in the face of tragic images they are witnessing, some things are not needed? Monica Zaccarelli: 2. How can we convert counterproductive, reactive behavior into well-informed constructive action? Monica Zaccarelli: 3. Do you have suggestions on how to get the message out? Monica Zaccarelli: To finalize, PAHO has also been tackling the problem of inappropriate in-kind donations from the point of view of the countries that receive such supplies. Monica Zaccarelli: Almost a decade ago a Supply Management System (SUMA) was developed and has being used, mainly in the countries of the Americas to support organizations on dealing with donations. Monica Zaccarelli: SUMA is a system that quickly identifies and assigns priority to those supplies that are urgently needed by the disaster-affected population; Monica Zaccarelli: It offers a tool for inventory control on warehousing and distribution of supplies and can keep authorities and donors informed of exactly what has been received. Monica Zaccarelli: The software is free of charge and can be downloaded from the following webpage: http://www.disaster.info.desastres.net/SUMA . It is offered to UN agencies, NGOs and governments. To this day there are around 2,500 volunteers in the Americas trained and ready to operate the system. Monica Zaccarelli: I will finish with this and hope to have your impressions. Thanks you for your time. Amy Sebring: Thank you Monica. Audience please enter a question mark (?) to indicate you wish to be recognized, go ahead and compose your comment or question, but wait for recognition before hitting the enter key or clicking on Send. Amy Sebring: We now invite your questions/comments. Burt Wallrich: ? Amy Sebring: Burt, when you are ready please. Suzanne Brooks: ? Burt Wallrich: Emergency Network Los Angeles is getting ready to print 10,000 4-panel wallet cards (Eng. & Span.) that include guidelines for donations. I will be glad to send the PageMaker file to anyone on request. Contact me at burtw@ix.netcom.com Amy Sebring: Great Burt. Suzanne next please. Cam King: ? Suzanne Brooks: I have found that one of the major sources of this problem have been the Embassies and UN Missions who find it "undiplomatic" to turn away these donations. Monica Zaccarelli: Yes... Suzanne... Monica Zaccarelli: you are completely right... Suzanne Brooks: These donations are more often than not inappropriate. They are also those most likely to get media attention. Monica Zaccarelli: So far what we have done in PAHO was to promote workshops... Monica Zaccarelli: with embassies and with chancelleries for the countries of the Americas... Monica Zaccarelli: we have also addressed the countries that are receiving those... Monica Zaccarelli: donations and worked with them so they are more precise... Monica Zaccarelli: on their needs... Monica Zaccarelli: but I insist... Monica Zaccarelli: what needs to be tackled are the voluntary... Monica Zaccarelli: donations that are responding to a declaration of needs from a country... Monica Zaccarelli: but reacting to images of people in desperate conditions... Monica Zaccarelli: those are our audience. Amy Sebring: Cam next please. Cam King: Regarding your first question - is there a proactive way to involve the media? The on-site reporters tend to jump on "everything is needed" issue and look for people who will support that view. We try to get to the local media as quickly as possible. Andrew Feeney: (?) Suzanne Brooks: ? Monica Zaccarelli: Cam, the "all is needed" approach... Monica Zaccarelli: is exactly what we need to address. Amy Sebring: Andrew next please. Andrew Feeney: Deputy Director NYS Emergency Management: I need a curriculum that I can use at the county level and with media groups and community organizations on a regular basis. Education is key but must be sustained. Monica Zaccarelli: Exactly Andrew... Amy Sebring: ? Monica Zaccarelli: that is why we are arguing for a campaign that is... Monica Zaccarelli: back in air periodically. Frank Kriz: ? Amy Sebring: Suzanne please. Suzanne Brooks: In my experience, our message is not what the media wants to hear. ( I have the scars to prove it!!) Only in the past few recent years have I seen good articles that address these issues. Roger Fritzel: ? Andrew Feeney: (?) Monica Zaccarelli: But maybe then we need to change the way we are selling our arguments. Monica Zaccarelli: And... Monica Zaccarelli: the question is how? Amy Sebring: Monica, have you had the opportunity to discuss the Disaster Reduction 2000 Campaign yet with ISDR? Monica Zaccarelli: We are in contact with the ISDR... Andrew Feeney: On the media, it's not the stars we need to get to, it the broadcast executives, but its a real battle anyhow since misery sells! Andrew Feeney: (?) Monica Zaccarelli: the idea is that the disaster reduction day... Monica Zaccarelli: will be the launching of the campaign so we need a lot of work... Monica Zaccarelli: on defining the message and detailing it before. Amy Sebring: Frank next please. Cam King: ! Frank Kriz: I understand the need for public education but more importantly I think that the establishment of centralized control is what is needed. Monica Zaccarelli: Frank... what do you mean by centralized control? Amy Sebring: Frank do you mean centralized control of collecting and disseminating .. Amy Sebring: the information about what is and what is not needed? Frank Kriz: Without a central control point that can advise the public and private donators of what is really needed for a particular disaster we are only chasing our tails. Frank Kriz: people give out of emotion, this emotion can be directed but only if we really know what is needed and have a logistical plan of how to get it where it is needed ray pena: ! Amy Sebring: Monica, perhaps you can tell us how this is done now usually? Monica Zaccarelli: The organized... Monica Zaccarelli: professional NGOs Monica Zaccarelli: have their own internal means of ... Monica Zaccarelli: sending supplies.... Monica Zaccarelli: many use to have a local interlocutor... Monica Zaccarelli: with whom they confirm what is needed.. Monica Zaccarelli: and it also serves as the distributor agency. Frank Kriz: ? Amy Sebring: So there is no one official way of getting the word out now? Is that correct? Russell Coile: ? Suzanne Brooks: ? Monica Zaccarelli: In the Americas... Monica Zaccarelli: the government of the countries..; Monica Zaccarelli: usually make a declaration of needs... Andrew Feeney: (?) Monica Zaccarelli: after a rapid needs assessment. Monica Zaccarelli: but again... Monica Zaccarelli: what we have seen is that the donations of individuals... Monica Zaccarelli: collected are the ones that take a long time to be sorted and distributed. Amy Sebring: Roger Fritzel next please. Roger Fritzel: Monica, you mentioned an amount of $20 million spent in Bosnia. Would you confirm that is the amount you intended to state? Monica Zaccarelli: As far as I was informed .... Monica Zaccarelli: yes 20 millions dollar was the value.. Monica Zaccarelli: of the loan given to give a solution to the inappropriate donations. Amy Sebring: Andrew next please. Andrew Feeney: Sorry for the misfire before. In NY I use the Governor's message on getting out the word. WHO, The UN have to do more to get their word out on the massive relief they provide. Amy Sebring: Cam next please Cam King: Monica - for information - I sit on Rotary International's Rapid Response Task Force and am pushing the 28,000+ clubs world wide to accept the PAHO guidelines for all types of donations. We are making progress through having representative Rotarians from every region of the world. Through them we plan to get to their respective community level with the message. Monica Zaccarelli: Great... I think that is very good idea... Monica Zaccarelli: we can explore! Amy Sebring: Ray next please. ray pena: I have the same sense as Frank, but I would say it's more a matter of integration. Donors would like to know that their contribution is doing some good, that the NGOs and UN agencies are working together to meet needs and not competing among themselves for scarce resources. Potential donors need to be told (and they must be convinced) - if you give this money or these resources they will be used by these agencies to address these needs. Monica Zaccarelli: I cannot agree more. Amy Sebring: Frank next please. Frank Kriz: The American Red Cross has struggled with in-kind issues for a long time. They now have a complete program developed including training for the local level. Even with this it is not perfect but has come a long way since the debacle of Hurricane Andrew. Monica Zaccarelli: American Red Cross is... Monica Zaccarelli: a very important partner... Monica Zaccarelli: the American public is a significant donor... Frank Kriz: A clearing house approach is probably the best approach from a logistical stand point. Amy Sebring: Russell next please. Russell Coile: I thought that the SALEMDUG (State & Local Emergency Managers .. Russell Coile: Data Users Group- Bill Lent) developed a comprehensive donations.. Avagene Moore: ? Russell Coile: management system about five years ago. Monica Zaccarelli: I do not know how they work... Monica Zaccarelli: thanks for the tip... I will follow this up. Amy Sebring: Suzanne please. Suzanne Brooks: Many of the public offers are forwarded to me through various government and NGO agencies. We try to dissuade people from making these large collections by explaining the transport/distribution costs and logistics, but with corporate offers of free transport by air or sea complicate matters significantly -- Hurricane Mitch as an example! Companies were flying and shipping all kinds of donations free of charge with no inventories or distribution mechanism in place. Monica Zaccarelli: Exactly ... Monica Zaccarelli: and once this was in the countries Monica Zaccarelli: the time to sort this out... Monica Zaccarelli: and internally get to the victims was too long. Amy Sebring: Avagene next please. Avagene Moore: Monica, do you think the Internet provides opportunities for getting this message out, and if so, how? Russell Coile: ? Cam King: ? Monica Zaccarelli: It does... Monica Zaccarelli: but it reaches still, only a limited public. Amy Sebring: Russell next please. Russell Coile: I believe that the UN World Food Program (Peter Casier) has a new... Tony Stitt: ? Russell Coile: donations management program. Monica Zaccarelli: Yes they do... Monica Zaccarelli: and they have been very efficient on distributing their grains... Monica Zaccarelli: but imagine... Monica Zaccarelli: you are in a airport in Honduras... Monica Zaccarelli: and you open a box that has no description of content Monica Zaccarelli: and you are faced with 30 boxes... Monica Zaccarelli: of medicines, some toys and clothes. Amy Sebring: Thanks Russell. I thought you would bring up GDIN. I think this could be a good fit... Cam next please. Cam King: Monica - before we run out of time, could you provide your Email address? Monica Zaccarelli: It takes a long time to sort this out and ... Monica Zaccarelli: address to the people in need. Monica Zaccarelli: my email... zacarelm@paho.org Amy Sebring: Tony next please ... Tony Stitt: Hi Monica - to what extent do you think non-profits are in agreement about the need for a public education campaign? My informal polling has shown that some fear that such a campaign might curb donations, on which they rely. Amy Sebring: ? Monica Zaccarelli: I understand that Tony... Monica Zaccarelli: but our job is to show... Monica Zaccarelli: we are not against in kind donations … Monica Zaccarelli: but we are... Monica Zaccarelli: arguing for donations that will be appreciated. Tony Stitt: I agree totally - just wanted to point out that there will be some opposition. Andrew Feeney: (?) Burt Wallrich: ? Amy Sebring: Monica, does PAHO have a specific strategy for getting various groups, the media, etc. together to discuss this issue and develop the common message? Monica Zaccarelli: We have addressed ... Monica Zaccarelli: different groups.... Monica Zaccarelli: and talked about it. From next year on we will probably... Monica Zaccarelli: build a more formal space for this conversation. Amy Sebring: Andrew next please. Amy Sebring: Then we will go to Burt, and that is all we will have time for today. Andrew Feeney: The key at the grassroots is to provide alternatives to collecting so people can express community without creating problems. Fundraisers, raffles, all geared toward raising cash can be viable alternatives at the local level if there is leadership. I have seen it happen! Amy Sebring: Sounds like a good idea Andrew, comment Monica? Monica Zaccarelli: Do not go before giving me you e mail. Amy Sebring: Burt please. Burt Wallrich: Tony, I think there is full agreement among the nonprofits in NVOAD about the need for a rational policy on in-kind donations. Tony Stitt: In our coalition (InterAction), there is not such consensus. Amy Sebring: Perhaps this process Monica is talking about ... Amy Sebring: is a consensus building process ... Amy Sebring: it sounds like it from what she describes. Correct Monica? Monica Zaccarelli: Correct Amy. Amy Sebring: Ok, we will have to end there ... Amy Sebring: Thank you very much for being with us today Monica, and we wish you success in your efforts. Can you stand by a moment while we take care of some announcements? Amy Sebring: For any first-timers, we will have a text transcript posted later this afternoon, which you will be able to access from the Transcripts link on our homepage. Then next Monday we will have a reformatted transcript in both html and in Word for download. Amy Sebring: I am VERY pleased to announce we had 3 pledgers hit the 12 month mark during September: Cam King, Daryl Spiewak, and Linda Underwood! Amy Sebring: Way to go! //bell //bell //bell Amy Sebring: We will add them to our Hall of Fame, and get some certificates on their way when we get them printed! Amy Sebring: Avagene, can you tell us what's coming up in the Virtual Forum please? Avagene Moore: Thanks, Amy. Monica, I personally appreciate your presentation today and wish you and PAHO the best with the campaign to educate the masses about the problems related to 'well-intended' but many times unwise donations to disaster victims. ... Avagene Moore: Next week, Wednesday October 11, 12 Noon EDT, the EIIP Virtual Forum celebrates "International Day for Disaster Reduction." Avagene Moore: Nicole Appel, Awareness & Promotion Officer, for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) Secretariat will be our guest speaker. Avagene Moore: Please make your plans to participate in our third annual celebration of this day designed to focus global attention on disaster reduction world-wide. Avagene Moore: That's all for now, Amy. Back to you. Amy Sebring: Thank you Ava. Thanks to all our participants today and the good questions. We will adjourn the session for now, but you are welcome to remain for informal discussion. You no longer need to use question marks.